Opis • Zastosowania / Funkcja

Erbium, oneof the so-called rare-earth elements of the lanthanide series, is found in the minerals mentioned under dysprosium above. In 1842 Mosander separated“yttria,” found in the mineral gadolinite, into three fractions which he called yttria, erbia, and terbia. The names erbia and terbia became confusedin this early period. After 1860, Mosander’s terbia was known as erbia, and after 1877, the earlier known erbia became terbia. The erbia of this periodwas later shown to consist of five oxides, now known as erbia, scandia, holmia, thulia and ytterbia. By 1905 Urbain and James independently succeededin isolating fairly pure Er2O3. Klemm and Bommer first produced reasonably pure erbium metal in 1934 by reducing the anhydrous chloride withpotassium vapor. The pure metal is soft and malleable and has a bright, silvery, metallic luster. As with other rare-earth metals, its properties dependto a certain extent on the impurities present. The metal is fairly stable in air and does not oxidize as rapidly as some of the other rare-earth metals.Naturally occurring erbium is a mixture of six isotopes, all of which are stable. Twenty four radioactive isotopes of erbium are also recognized. Recentproduction techniques, using ion-exchange reactions, have resulted in much lower prices of the rare-earth metals and their compounds in recent years.The cost of 99.9% erbium metal is about $4/g. Erbium is finding nuclear and metallurgical uses. Added to vanadium, for example, erbium lowersthe hardness and improves workability. Most of the rare-earth oxides have sharp absorption bands in the visible, ultraviolet, and near infrared. Thisproperty, associated with the electronic structure, gives beautiful pastel colors to many of the rare-earth salts. Erbium oxide gives a pink color and hasbeen used as a colorant in glasses and porcelain enamel glazes. 1

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